It appears to lack the gothic grace of Del Toro’s pet project original, but there is plenty of Kaiju on monster mash-up action.

When Pacific Rim landed with a dull thud back in 2003, the chances of a sequel were pretty minimal, all despite global box-office takings of over $400m, and Guillermo Del Toro vocally keen to further the adventures of Jaegers versus Monsters. The problem was that the film had only just eked over the $100m mark in the US, all off the back of a $190m production budget.

Fast forward a few years and the Uprising is getting reading for a 2018 release, albeit with a reduced budget and all-new cast. Del Toro is off doing his own thing now (watch the trailer for the spectacular looking The Shape of Water here), but remains on story and post-production duties. Piloting the behemoth smackdowns this time is Daredevil (Netflix TV version) and Buffy/Angel director, Steven S. DeKnight, helming his debut feature film.

Cancelling the apocalypse for a second time, Boyega will be playing some relation to Idris Elba’s brilliantly named Stacker Pentecost from the first movie. Sadly, Elba won’t be back to give rousing speeches. In fact, the only returning cast members from Pacific Rim will be Charlie Day and Burn Gorman’s comedic doctors, and Rinko Kikuchi’s Mako Mori.